New York State finds New and Exciting Ways to Kill an Economy

I was reading in the paper that a commission  here in New York was recommending bringing back the sales tax on clothes under $110. Not to mention putting sales taxes on mp3s and eBooks.

The commission suggested that these taxes would help out poor people and lessen the tax burden on the middle class.

To that I have one question to ask: WHAT THE FUCK?

Ladies and Gentlemen, This is the Democratic Party in action: Tax, tax, tax, then spend, spend spend on government entitlement programs. Preventing the creation of the very new jobs that allow people to pay the very taxes that fund municipal govenrments.

Let’s get this straight: Taxes will help poor people and lessen their tax burden on the middle class. What the fuck are these legislators smoking?

The last time we had sales taxes here in New York City on clothing over $110 it almost crippled most of the retail businesses here. Hasn’t anyone told this commission that New York State is still in the middle of a economic downturn? That retailers are already have gone through a SLOW back-to-school sales period and are apprehensive about going through an even SLOWER holiday season?

And hasn’t anyone told these legislators that two thirds of the United States economy is based on consumer spending? Spending that’s being stifled in New York City by apprehensive consumers afraid to spend their money because they’re living paycheck to paycheck because the rent is too damn high. Seriously, most working people in New York City sacrifice necessities like groceries just to pay their rent or their property taxes.

All a sales tax on clothing and shoes is going to do is make more working people head to the Goodwill to shop. Or worse, eBay. No sales tax on purchases there.

Consumer confidence in New York among working families is already shaky. And all any new sales taxes are going to make people more scared to spend money in an economic downturn. And it’s going to make businesses hesitant to spend money on business expansion. Today most people are living paycheck to paycheck, and all a sales tax on clothing is just going to drive them either out of state to New Jersey or to online retailers. Driving tax revenue right out of New York State.

The last thing we need is a return of the sales tax on clothing and shoes. And we definitely don’t need a sales tax on eBooks and mp3s.

The fastest way to kill an industry like indie publishing before it gets starts gaining momentum is to tax it. And Democrats love to tax business into oblivion here in New York State. In the 1980s high taxes drove lots of both old and new businesses out of New York State and turned it into a barren wasteland of dying towns filled with abandoned buildings. Corporations and small businesspeople avoided investing the state back then due to the high tax burdens and mountains of red tape.

The textbook definition of insanity is doing the exact same thing and expecting a different result. And these government policies follow the exact same failed business approaches used by Democrats in the 1970s and 1980s. Back then I believe the public was told higher taxes would help poor people too.

But all it did was drive business straight out of New York State.

It looks like a return to the bad old days with this commissions’ recommendations. This is a slippery slope Governor Andrew Cuomo doesn’t know about. One that tarnished his fathers’ political legacy. These pages from the David Paterson handbook of governing need to be scrapped and burned. There are other ways for the state to generate revenue. New Yorkers don’t need more taxes during one of the worst economic downturns since the Great Depression.

As a publisher of a catalog of eBooks I shudder to think what this sales tax would do to my business and the business of other indie publishers here in New York State. These are the kinds of nickel and dime taxes that turn hesitant consumers on the fence into no sales. When people see taxes added to their purchases, they think twice about spending on an eBook.

Over time these are the kinds of taxes that drive new businesses like indie publishers out of business. And these nickel and dime sales taxes kills the small businesses of struggling shopping districts like Fordham Road, Third Avenue, Fifth Avenue and 34th Street. Places where I see more For Rent Signs hanging in the windows than retail outlets are these days.

The last thing New York State needs is new taxes. Right now during this economic downturn, New York’s politicians need to come up with creative ways to persuade investors to bring their businesses to the state. All a return to the sales tax on clothing and shoes and on mp3s and eBooks will do is bring is bring business to states like New Jersey and Connecticut and turn cities like New York City into the next Detroit.